


Lights and Swords

by shopfront



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Temporary Amnesia, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 17:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18429128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: After a few close calls, Clara and Lady Me decide to take a break from running and only revisit places from Me's diaries. But there's still surprises to be found along the way.





	Lights and Swords

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kira_katrine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_katrine/gifts).



“I think I remember reading about something like this in my diaries,” Lady Me said. She tapped a finger against her lower lip thoughtfully as she surveyed the complex, and her face was awash in colour as lights in the walls, floors, and ceiling pulsed and changed around them. It somehow made her appear more immortal and alien than Clara had ever seen her look, and also imminently more kissable.

Clara swayed towards her, and Me’s eyes sharped as she smirked knowingly. She stayed still just long enough to let Clara place a chaste yet lingering kiss on her mouth, and then walked over to examine some of the lights more closely.

“It looks like a giant Earth computer. Like one of those internal board thingies, I think they have lights on them. Maybe. Um, Me, not to sound paranoid or anything, but are you feeling a little… observed, at all?” Clara asked as she turned to follow close on Me's heels.

“I don’t think I remember what Earth computers look like anymore,” Me replied absently as she bent over to examine a single light that had started blinking in only varying shades of blue.She reached out a hand towards the light as she spoke, and a whirring noise began inside the wall. Before she could make contact, a large seam appeared in the wall around the light. It was quickly followed by a hiss and then the newly visible panel retracted, revealing a screen covered in constantly moving, alien script.

Clara ducked in close to peer over Me’s shoulder. “I can’t read that,” she said with a frown. “Why can’t I read that? Can you read it? Our TARDIS should be translating it, it looks like a language.”

“I don’t think it wants to be read,” Me said as they watched the screen finish filling with script and begin to scroll. The script began to change as it scrolled, the symbols morphing into different sizes and shapes as the screen began to fill faster and faster.

A sinking feeling started to form in Clara’s stomach. “How does something successfully outsmart the TARDIS just because it doesn’t want to be read? Maybe we should get out of here,” she said, glancing over her shoulder But they were still alone in a cavernous room where the lights blinked in fast, multi-coloured patterns. It was only the screen that was changing.

“Maybe,” Me said, not sounding worried at all. She still watched the screen closely, and she reached out again to touch it. “But I don’t think we’re in any danger. I still think I remember reading about something like-”

*

The sun was rising and the birds were singing and Clara… Clara didn’t have any idea where she was. She blinked her eyes open slowly and squinted up at the sky, then at the long grass that was cushioning her head and tickling the sides of her face.

Groaning, she heaved herself up and stared around. She was lying in the centre of an empty field filled with waving purple grass and green wildflowers. Off in the distance she could see a forest, and nestled at the edge of it was a sprawling manor house. Squinting, she raised a hand to shield her eyes and spotted movement by the entrance.

Shrugging, she pushing herself the rest of the way up to her feet and started walking. She didn’t- No, she didn’t remember anything other than her name. If it even was her name, and not just a random thought floating around in her head. But perhaps the stranger by the house could tell her more.

Clara was only halfway there when everything around her flickered oddly. Thrown, Clara stopped and stared as she blinked rapidly to try and clear her vision. Then everything seemed to snap back into focus just as a thundering sound started up behind her. Startled, she threw herself sideways. But it was only barely in time, and the warm, sweaty side of a horse still clipped her, sending her spinning off down into the grass again.

“Oi! Watch it!” she yelled as she staggered back up and rubbed at her arm. But the people on horseback -the knights, she amended in her own head, she remembered what they were now - just ignored her and continued on their way. They clanked in their armour as they urged their horses on, yelling back and forth amongst themselves as they also headed in the direction of the manor.

She continued to glare and grumble as she walked in their wake, grimacing each time she stepped in a muddy hoofprint or stumbled over a churned up bit of ground. Thankfully, by the time Clara reached the manor they’d were long gone past without stopping. Instead, a woman in a sweeping gown was still standing alone where Clara had first spotted her on the stone steps, just above all the churned up mud. The woman was watching intently as Clara approached, but her expression was untroubled.

“Er, hello,” Clara said, and introduced herself awkwardly. The skin on the back of her neck prickled, like eyes were on her. Eyes other than the stranger before her. But the field she’d left still lay empty behind her, she’d checked more than once as she walked, and with the knights long gone there was only the other woman around to watch her. Even the windows of the house had looked empty and lifeless whenever she’d glanced up.

Yet the feeling of being scrutinised stayed with her, no matter how she tried to shrug it off.

“Hello,” the woman said. A smile lurked around her lips as she watched Clara with curious expression. “You can call me the Lady Me.”

Clara tilted her head at the name, tempted to laugh but also… tempted to do something else, to react in a way that she couldn’t name or explain. She didn’t think she’d heard of a title like that before. Still, it seemed- But no matter, she decided with a wide smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Me. I don’t suppose you might be able to tell me where we are?”

Lady Me blinked. Her gaze became soft and unfocused as she looked past Clara's shoulder. “No,” she replied softly as her brow furrowed. “I don’t think I can. Don’t you know?”

“Nope,” Clara said cheerfully, swinging her hands by her side and working hard to keep her smile fixed on her face. “I don’t. Not sure why. Probably should be concerned about that actually, but I was asleep, just back there, and poof, nothing to remember when I woke up. Except my name, I’m fairly sure my name’s Clara but that’s all I've got.”

Lady Me’s eyebrows grew closer together as she considered Clara’s words. “I woke up a short while ago just inside these doors, and those men on the horses didn’t stop to speak with me so I’m afraid I'm no more the wiser than you. Perhaps you might like to come in, and the two of us might find a way to solve this mystery?”

Clara nodded, glancing one last time over her shoulder. Off in the distance she could spot the hazy shape of mountains and more forests, and above them the tiny shape of something swooping through the air. Only, to be visible from that far away, it must be huge. Though she wasn’t sure quite how she knew that.

Turning back to Lady Me, Clara held out her hand. “Yes, yes I would, thanks.”

A thrill ran through her as the Lady Me’s took her hand gently and shook it, though something about it niggled at Clara. Perhaps she should have… bowed? Or curtsied? Shaking off the strange thought, Clara followed the Lady Me through the entrance.

She still didn’t know where she was or what was happening, but perhaps the Lady was right. Perhaps they could solve this puzzle if they worked together.

*

Clara followed Lady Me through the house until she was completely turned around. Room opened up into room, after room, after room, and she wasn’t reassured by the way her confusion seemed to be mirrored on the Lady’s face.

Eventually Clara worked herself up to asking. “Look, ah, are we going somewhere in particular?”

“I was going to show you to a room, so that you could bathe and rest before the evening meal. But,” the Lady said, and then trailed off as she opened another door. With a sigh, she pushed it the rest of the way open to reveal yet another long hallway as she pulled a face at Clara. “But I can’t seem to find anything useful.”

“We passed a kitchen back there, maybe we should just go eat. Or… do you have servants?”

The Lady tilted her head to the side. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen or heard anyone, so perhaps I live alone. But _can_ you eat?”

Staring at Lady Me, Clara waved her hands in the air. “What?” she asked. “Of course I can- I mean, I think I can- Wait, why don’t you think I can eat?”

“Because you aren’t breathing,” the Lady said calmly as she stepped closely enough to lay her hand on Clara’s chest. Clara stared down at it in confusion, until it slowly began to dawn on her that the hand - that her chest - wasn’t moving.

“I’m not breathing,” Clara heard herself say distantly, but the Lady was still moving closer to her.

“You seem fine otherwise,” Lady Me said as she raised her hand and touched a gentle finger to Clara’s mouth. “So what if you’re not breathing, if it doesn’t seem to be doing you any harm.”

“Sleeping Beauty,” Clara said slowly. Then she frowned. “Wait, why did I say that?”

But the Lady Me didn’t seem to be listening. “Beautiful and not alive, but not dead,” the Lady murmured agreeably as she leant in.

Still frozen by shock, Clara watched as Lady Me moved closer. So her eyes were still open wide when Lady Me’s lips met hers, and Clara alone saw the colours of the walls shift and the open door behind Lady Me flicker.

“Awoken with a-”

*

“-this might be,” Me finished, her hand still hovering in front of the screen. The symbols had stopped scrolling, and the last one blinked, frozen in place at the bottom. “Yes, I wrote about an immersive artificial intelligence on this planet. Only I must have entered the date wrong, I didn’t think it had been built yet or I would have paid more attention to those entries before we came here.”

Clara opened and shut her mouth silently a few times. “Oh my god, that was like-”

“A myth? A make believe place?” Me asked as she turned away from the screen. The panel hissed and slid back into the wall behind her, but Me didn’t even blink at the sound.

“I was going to say a fairytale, but yeah, pretty much.”

“The intelligence pulls easily recognised archetypes from the subconscious of its subjects. We’re probably lucky that there’s not much storage up here for it to draw on,” Me said as she tapped a finger against her own forehead. “I’m fairly sure I can convince it to re-start the immersive simulation though, if you want to go back.”

“You can- yeah? I mean, no. Wait. Do you still feel watched? I still feel watched,” Clara said with a grimace, looking around.

But Me just shrugged. “We can go back and double check my diaries, but I wrote that it was friendly. Mostly.”

“Mostly?” Clara asked, feeling torn, and Me beamed at her.

“It’s meant to assess visitors for threats. But as long as we don’t pose a danger to it, we can probably play with the world it creates for as long as we want.”

“I don’t know if I’m the princess type. Oh, but I think I saw a dragon flying off in the distance! That’s what that was!” Me’s smile widened, and she stepped back towards where the panel had disappeared when Clara nodded eagerly. “Oh why not then, go on,” Clara said, and she reached out to take Me’s hand as the whirring noise started up once more.


End file.
